Stop Thinking
by darkrunner
Summary: Anzu struggles to understand Yugi and his 'other' self. Two souls in one body? Or two halves of the same whole? Ah, it's too confusing! I need to stop thinking about it. Spiritshipping.


A/N: Well, it's been some time since I've written a contest fic. I was arond when they did puzzle and revolution, but not peach... ah ha, maybe THAT'S what Ryou meant by "echo"! Gosh, I would love more threesome pairings, then. I don't see it as a threesome, I see it as whichever two characters I want to pair together and the other one that just has to be in the fic.

Manga-verse. For those who haven't read the manga, there's this hilarious bit in volume 10 (Duelist volume 3) where Mai tells Yugi that Anzu wants to talk to him, and only much later tells Anzu this, forcing the two of them to have some alone time. This leads to no one being in the tent with Mai, and Player Killer of Darkness (Panik) coming into the tent and forcing her into a duel. The anime version was Mai wandering off by herself for a bit and there getting kidnapped by Player Killer (Panik). The Yugi/Anzu was nixed.

I don't remember the dialogue word for word, and I don't have the manga on me right now, so it's a little different in the actual manga.

Disclaimer: It's mine in "spirit"! Haha! Ha... Get it? No? Too much? Never mind, then. I don't own it.

* * *

"Remember, a woman always has the advantage at night!"

Anzu was glad it was too dark for anyone to see her blushing. What was that supposed to mean? What advantage did she need? It was just Yugi... no, that wasn't what she meant! Anzu stopped thinking about it and focused on navigating in the dark.

The trees thinned, and she could hear the ocean. She made out Yugi's silhoutette against the starry night. She sat down next to him.

"Hey, Yugi," How long had he been waiting for her?

"Anzu!" She knew the way he looked up at her, even in the dark. "Hey. What'd you want to talk about?"

"Um..." Anzu tried to think. Thanks, Mai. However older she was than them, she was going to hear about this when Anzu got back. "Ah... just wanted to talk about old times, I guess!" Great going, Anzu. That didn't sound made up out of thin air at all! "Being here on this island, just the five of us, I felt like reminiscing, I guess."

"Mmm," he replied. They sat there for a while, not talking. The ocean crashed on the shore. Insects chirped in the forest. But the two of them sat.

It was kind of nice, just sitting. Eveything had been crazy ever since Yugi dueled Pegasus. No, when he dueled Kaiba... heck, since he had solved the puzzle. Chloroforming psychics, fighting off street thugs, brainwashing Egpytians, Death-T, souls trapped in dice, and the list went on. There's no time for just sitting while millennium item wielders try to trap your soul in an RPG game or make you walk off a roof.

Or while crazy people tried to blow up your ferris wheel car. She remebered her foolish quest to draw out the "let's play a game!" voice. She nearly got herself killed for a stupid crush. No, it wasn't even a crush, just an infatuation. Just a mysterious voice that saved her from an escaped convict-geez, why did the universe keep picking on them? It wasn't so odd that she wanted to know his identity. Toying with Yugi wasn't the best way to go about it, though. Anzu still regretted that day in the amusement park. Yugi was so excited to go on that date with her, but she just wanted the bomber to threaten her so the other Yugi would come out.

The "other" Yugi. Were they really the same person? At first, he looked like the more confident, agressive, hidden half of Yugi. Once the two of them met, while the evil self of the millennium ring tried to trap them in 'Monster World', it wasn't so clear. How could they be the same soul and exist in two separate places?

But how could they be two souls in the same body?

Yugi interuppted Anzu's thoughts before she could ponder his (their?) existence any further.

"Anzu... you want to talk to the other me, don't you?"

What? No! I mean, maybe, to try and figure out how all this existentialism with you two works, but I don't want you to go away! Anzu couldn't get out that sentence without sounding like an idiot, though, so she said nothing and Yugi continued:

"I'll get him. He usually comes out when I call him." Yugi tried to look happy about it, but he wasn't any good at hiding his feelings. Anzu finally managed to string some words together.

"No!" Okay, one word. Try for more? "You don't have to do that, Yugi. I don't need to talk to your other self. It's you I want to talk to!"

"Anzu...?" Yugi asked.

She put her hand on his. Yugi blushed. "You, Yugi, you're fine just as you are. You don't need your other self."

Both of them were comprehending that statement when a loud scream interuppted. They turned towards the forest.

"That sounded like Miss Kujaku!"

Yugi bolted up and ran towards it. Anzu followed, happy for the distraction. What did she just say? If he didn't need his other self, then they weren't the same person after all?

They came to a clearing. Mai and a man sat in a duel box. He grabbed at the pile of star chips on the table, laughing. Mai fled the duel box, nearly running into Yugi and Anzu.

"What happened?" Yugi asked. "Did you lose?"

"You guys..." Mai started, not knowing what to say. Yugi looked down at her empty dueling glove, but the opponent spoke up before Yugi could comment on it.

"She lost, all right!" he booomed. The man was huge, especially compared with the three of them. "Every last one of her star chips. She's done." He laughed.

"I guess I won't duel you after all," she said quietly to Yugi. He clenched a fist.

"I won't accept that!" he shouted, and when he took a step forward, he was another Yugi. Anzu stared, still unused to the "other" after all this time. He challenged the Player Killer-that was the only name the man gave, 'Player Killer of Darkness'.

Yugi stepped into the duel box, not intimidated, not even when he threw a noose around his neck. Anzu nearly had a heart attack, but Yugi was fine.

Between her questions on the nature of his existence and the fact that the Player Killer might actually kill him, Anzu couldn't concentrate on the duel. Her mind kept going to places she didn't want it to. Like, what would happen to him if he died? If there really were two different people in Yugi's body, then would they both... would one of them still be there? Were both of those people Yugi? Who was the other person? Where did he come from? What was he doing in Yugi's body?

The duel passed agonizingly slowly, and Anzu had nothing to do but let those thoughts torture her. Yugi dueled like he always did. He called the man's bluff. He stood up to him. He was so sure that the Player Killer would lose in 3 turns, but Anzu still anxiously watched the wire around his neck.

"He's really a different person when he duels," Mai commented.

"Something like that," Anzu mumbled. Mai wasn't asking, and was too absorbed in the duel to notice that Anzu wasn't.

Never mind what would happen to Yugi, what would happen to her if Yugi... if... well, she knew what she meant, she didn't have to say the word. Think the word. Whatever. What would she do? She'd been friends with Yugi for so long, she couldn't picture life without him. Jounouchi was the best friend she never could be, but she was still there years before Jounouchi and Honda showed up. Life without Yugi... she had sort of thought about it before, but usually she was also going to die. And wasn't usually bothered with this stupid existentialist Cartesian meaning-of-Yugi's-two-souls stuff.

Just like that, he won. It was over. Player Killer was about to win, and then everything blew up in his face. He screamed at unseen phantoms while Yugi cooly left the duel box. If Anzu hadn't been through these life-or-death fights before, she might've collapsed. As it was, she didn't trust herself to walk very quickly.

Yugi returned Mai's star chips to her. She wouldn't accept them, but the guys showed up and fixed that. Anzu could've laughed out loud at the look on Yugi's face when Jounouchi took the star chips from him. She _did_ laugh at Mai's reaction, glad to see the tables turned after the whole tricking-her-into-having-alone-time-with-Yugi thing, but she only laughed a little, and no one noticed. They all wandered back to the camp. Yugi was the last. On an impulse, Anzu grabbed his hand.

"Yugi!" What did she want to say to him? 'I'm not really sure what's up with you and that other guy inside of you who might also be you but might be another person entirely, but I'm okay with it!' Yeah, _no._ "I meant what I said before. About you being fine the way you are."

He smiled. "Thanks, Anzu."

She let go of his hand. "Good night."

"Night!" He waved, and she went back to the tent.

Mai didn't harass her about Yugi this time. Mai didn't say much of anything, leaving Anzu alone to think. She still hadn't sorted things out. She did mean what she told him... but which part of Yugi was fine the way it was? Yugi? The other person? Or both of them together?

If they really were different people... which one was she in love with?

_That_ was something she didn't want to touch. When Mai asked her what Jounouchi's reason for dueling was, Anzu was happy to answer in detail, fighting to keep Yugi, Yugis, out of her thoughts. She'd deal with it when the time came.

* * *

A/N: So I made this rule that I wouldn't use honorifics anymore because I'm not writing in Japanese. That made writing this fic really awkward, because Yugi and Anzu usually say "Mai-san". I just tried to avoid using her name.

Manga references!  
Chloroforming psychics: Kokurano was a fake psychic at Domino High. He chloroformed Anzu and tried to kidnap her. Volume 1.

fighting off street thugs: Jounouchi used to be in a gang. Said gang tried to get him back by threatening his classmates. Volume 2.

brainwashing Egpytians: Malik wasn't the first! Shadi shows up in the end of Volume 2 and continues into Volume 3. He controls Anzu and makes her stand on the ledge of a building so Yugi will fight him.

Death-T: Killer laser tag, killer haunted house ride, a hand-guillotine, an actual serial killer, killer falling blocks, and then just some guys that put guns to their heads while Yugi dueled Mokuba and Kaiba. All part of Kaiba's giant tower of revenge. Oh, and Johji, Honda's pervy talking baby nephew. He's pretty weird.

souls trapped in dice: Yami Bakura had the power to trap people's souls in things. This gets translated to the anime in the extremely hilarious episode 13.


End file.
